The Vatican announced on Monday that Pope Leo XIV held a surprise in-person meeting with Nobel Peace Prize winner and anti-socialist Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado shortly before she is expected to meet with President Donald Trump.
Exiled Venezuelan President-elect Edmundo González shared a photo on social media of the head of the Catholic Church with Machado, who was banned from running in the 2024 sham election and supported González’s campaign.
The Vatican also confirmed the meeting, publishing a list of the pope’s engagements on Monday morning that included his encounter with Machado. The Holy See did not offer any details on what transpired, nor has the pope himself commented at press time. Machado, at press time, has not mentioned the meeting on her public channels. Reuters noted that the Vatican had not included Machado on its previous lists of audiences for the pope scheduled for Monday.
Machado is arguably the last opposition leader with any positive standing in Venezuela after over a decade of leaders associated with the Socialist International seeking “dialogue” with deposed dictator Nicolás Maduro and his henchmen. A former lawmaker and devout Catholic who has faced a barrage of physical attacks by the socialists for over a decade, she won the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize for her novel use of ground operations in Venezuela to count local vote tallies and prove that González won the 2024 presidential election, despite Maduro claiming victory and refusing to publish any vote totals. The results of the election, as Machado’s team documented them, are available online for the public to peruse.
Machado’s meeting with the pope precedes an expected meeting with the president of the United States, to whom she dedicated her Nobel Peace Prize. Trump told reporters on Thursday that he anticipates meeting with Machado in Washington this week, complimenting her as a “very good person” and expressing enthusiasm for meeting her in person.
Trump effectively implemented informal American control of Venezuela last week by ordering an operation to capture and arrest dictator Maduro and his wife, “first combatant” Cilia Flores, enforcing a warrant for their arrest in the United States. The two, who have led the country since late dictator Hugo Chávez’s death in 2013, are facing a long list of charges in the Southern District of New York including “Narco-Terrorism Conspiracy, Cocaine Importation Conspiracy, Possession of Machineguns and Destructive Devices, and Conspiracy to Possess Machineguns and Destructive Devices against the United States.”
Since Maduro’s arrest, his “vice president” and top henchwoman, Delcy Rodríguez, has proclaimed herself president. Trump has told reporters throughout the past week that Rodríguez is cooperating with the United States in close communication with Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
Pope Leo has been vocal in calling for peace for Venezuela since Maduro’s arrest. On January 4, the day after the apprehension, the pontiff issued a statement calling for the return of constitutional rule to the country, which both Chávez and Maduro decimated during their times in power.
“The good of the beloved Venezuelan people must prevail over every other consideration and lead us to overcome violence and to undertake paths of justice and peace,” the pope said, “safeguarding the country’s sovereignty, ensuring the rule of law enshrined in the Constitution, respecting the human and civil rights of each person and of all, and working to build together a serene future of collaboration, stability, and concord, with special attention to the poorest who suffer because of the difficult economic situation.”
Pope Leo’s welcome for Machado is a stark contrast to the way that his predecessor, Pope Francis, handled relations with the country. Despite the Maduro regime’s repression of Catholics, including episcopal leaders, in the country, Pope Francis welcomed Maduro to the Vatican and rejected meetings with the families of political prisoners.
Pope Francis did not take any meaningful action in 2017 after socialist gangs known as colectivos attacked a Catholic Mass during holy week, assaulting the archbishop of Caracas, Jorge Urosa Savino, and Machado herself, who had attended the service.
The year before, Pope Francis embraced Maduro at the Vatican, offering “any step that would contribute to resolving open questions and generating greater trust between the parties.” The families of political prisoners, including the then-imprisoned socialist opposition leader Leopoldo López, visited the Vatican in December 2016 and chained themselves to the gates in St. Peter’s Square, but Pope Francis did not meet with them.
At the time, Machado, who had been marginalized by socialist forces within the opposition, condemned negotiations with Maduro.
“We have already warned that we cannot talk to this regime,” Machado said at the time. “Dictatorships don’t hold dialogues… the MUD [opposition coalition] must recognize its errors and a citizen movement must stand up to recover our democracy.”
Pope Francis sent representatives to Maduro’s “inauguration” in 2019 after the National Assembly had used its constitutional power to declare a “rupture in the democratic order” and oust Maduro politically. International support helped Maduro cling to power even as the constitutional executive mandate went to young lawmaker Juan Guaidó, who ultimately failed to exercise any executive powers.
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